A FISHER'S EXPEDITION. 23 



and, in spite of all her struggling, will bring to the gasp 

 at last and then, with calm eyes, behold her lying in 

 the shade dead, or, worse than dead, fast-fading, and to 

 be re-illumined no more in the lustre of her beauty, in- 

 sensible to sun or shower, even the most perishable of all 

 perishable things in a world of perishing ! 



But the salmon, says our authority, has grown sulky, 

 and must be made to spring to the plunging stone. 

 Then suddenly, instinct with new passion, she shoots out 

 of the foam like a bar of silver bullion ; and, relapsing 

 into the flood, is in another moment at the very head of 

 the waterfall ! Give her the butt, give her the butt, or 

 she is gone for ever with the thunder into two fathom 

 deep ! Now comes the trial of your tackle. Her snout is 

 southwards right up the middle of the main current of 

 the hill-born river, as if she would seek its very source 

 where she was spawned ! She still swims swift, and 

 strong, and deep and the line goes steady, boys, steady. 

 There is yet an hour's play in her dorsal fin danger in 

 the flap of her tail and yet may her silver shoulder 

 shatter the gut against a rock. Why, the river was yes- 

 terday in spate, and she is fresh run from the sea ! All 

 the lesser waterfalls are now level with the flood, and she 

 meets with no impediment or obstruction. The coast is 

 clear ; no tree-roots here, no floating branches, for during 

 the night they have all been swept down to the salt loch. 



In medio tutissimus ibis ay, now you feel she begins 

 to fail -the butt tells now every time you deliver your 

 right. What ! another mad leap ! yet another sullen 

 plunge ! She seems absolutely to have discovered, or 

 rather to be an impersonation of, the perpetual motion. 



But our quotation has extended to such a length that 



